Grapevine: BRDC drivers raise £80k in marathon

Andy Priaulx, Oliver Gavin, Darren Turner, Jonny Kane, Johnny Mowlem, Guy Smith, Richard Westbrook, Peter Dumbreck, Marino Franchitti, Stuart Hall, Charlie Hollings, Rob Barff, Sean Edwards, Marc Hynes and club secretary Stuart Pringle exceeded their expectations in collecting £80,000 for childrens' cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

Works Corvette driver Gavin finished the marathon 657th out of the 36,000 runners, setting a personal best time of 2h54m19s.

"I managed to get a blister just three miles into the run," said factory Aston Martin driver Turner. "It wasn't just any old blister either, as it even made the medic I saw afterwards wince! To start with I ignored it and kept going but at the 15-mile mark I was seriously considering calling it a day.

"Luckily Oliver Gavin had given me a bit of a heads up and suggested I take something with me to fix blisters, effectively a puncture repair kit for humans. I was starting to get pain all over the place as I wasn't putting weight on my foot properly so I stopped, patched myself up, and managed to make it to the end somehow."

The group raised a portion of the total at an auction before the event, which included a guided tour of the factory of the McLaren Formula 1 team.

"The most important thing is that we raised a lot of money for CLIC Sargent," added Turner. "I would like to thank Martin Whitmarsh at McLaren for donating a tour of the McLaren Technology Centre. This alone raised £6,500. My guests at the lunch were incredibly generous with their bids. I won't embarrass them by giving details but I am proud to be associated with them all."